France vs Russia

Last round of Volleyball Men's Nations League and France will play against Russia at Pala Panini in Modena.

Italy are the hosts of this group of 4 teams (Italy, France, USA and Russia) and they hoped for 3 wins which would give them a chance for the finals in France, but didn't do it! They lost their first match against Russia with 3:0, although they beat France yesterday with the same result. Even if they beat USA today, they have no chance for qualifying, because Poland won their match against Australia and the top 6 teams, which will play in the big finals are clear- Russia, France, Razil, USA, Poland and Serbia. Italy are out of the finals, surprisingly or not, when you lose against some of the bottom teams, that's your fortune, even if you beat teams like Brazil, France and Serbia.

So, this is a match between the first two teams in the table and it looks like it's not important for any of the teams. Maybe they will save some of their main players, but the reason to play for Russia is because their substitutes are from much better quality than France once and proved that. Russia played so many matches without one of their main stars- Maxim Mikhaylov, maybe the biggest one together with Muserskiy. And what's the outcome- 1st place till now with 11 wins and 3 losses, same as France. I expect Muserskiy to play today, he was substitution yesterday against USA, but played against Italy. With his height of about 2.15m he is almost unstoppable. Together with Volkov, Kliuka, Volvich and so on their team is maybe the second best in the world in this moment, only after Brazil.

Just to add, France are without their main star Rouzier in the Nations League. They rely a lot on Boyer to lead the team, supported by Ngapet and Le Goff.. I don't know what will be the starting line-up of both teams, it's still not clear, but even with Ngapet on the court, I don't see them to have many chances against Russia!

Russia took two wins 3:0 against Italy and USA in Modena, while France won 3:2 against USA and lost 0:3 against Italy. I am 100% with Russia to win here and the 1st place in the table.